When describing the distribution of a population or a sample of data, three characteristics are commonly used:
- Shape, or whether the distribution is symmetric, or skewed to the left or right.
- Center, or where the “typical value” lies.
- Spread, or how dispersed the data are.
In this activity, we will focus on the relationship between shape and center. In other words, we will show how the shape of a distribution relates to the mean, the median, and the mode.